Improvement in machines for coating fabrics with fluids



2Sheets--Sheti. A. MAN. Machines for Coating Fabrics with Fluids.N0.i49,8 PatentedApril2i,i874.

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Machines for Coating Fabrics with Fluids. NO.149,874, PatentedApril21,l874.

I WQ W k ift/eases.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBON MAN, on BROOKLYN, new YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINES FOR COATING FABRICS WITH FLUIDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1 49,874, dated April21,1874; application filed August 28, 1873.

tains to make anduse the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawing, making part of this specification.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a machine by which my saidinvention is put in practice; Fig. 2, a top view of said machine; Fig.3, a front elevation thereof; and Figs. 4,

-5, &c., detail parts of said. machine to be hereinafter more fullyexplained.

The object of my said invention is to facilitate and regulate moreeffectually the application of adhesive, plastic, or coloring materialor substance to paper .or other thin fabric to which it may be desirableto apply any, all, or either of said materials or substances;

and my said invention consists in spreading.

said material or substances upon the surface of the paper or otherfabric under a pressure produced through the agency of air actingdirectly or indirectly upon the coating or coloring matter as it flowsand spreads upon the paper or other material, and in instantaneouslystopping the flow and spreading of such adhesive or other material bythe pressure of the atmosphere when it is desirable to stop it.

The construction and operation of the machine whereby my said inventionis carried into practice will be understood by the followingdescription,reference being had to the drawings above referred to.

Let us assume that'the covering or coloring material has been preparedand thepaper furnished of the size and form required, the thing to bedone is to apply the one to the other in'the manner above. indicated. Todo that I put the coveringor coloring material in a can or reservoir,shown in the drawing by A, theupper part A whereof, for the sake ofconvenience, may be made of glass. The top of this can is fitted with anelastic or yielding cover, snugly fitted, and made of some materialimpervious to the air and fitted to exclude it, such as india-rubber,for example, of which the cover in this instance is made, though it maybe made of metal. The cover is shown by a. This can is made as wide asthe maximum width of the paper to be coated or colored, and its frontside is fitted with .a delivering or spreading nozzle, 1), in widthequal to that of the can. This nozzle I call the applier. The top sideof the spreading nozzle 'of' said can consists of a plain smoothsurface, with a narrow opening made therein along its entire length.This surface of said nozzle is covered with a plate, 0, accuratelyfitted thereto, so that the two surfaces when the plate is screwed downform a joint tight enough to exclude the air or hold the fluid in thecan. Said nozzle is also fitted with a diaphragm-plate, 0, extendingalong its entire width and. reaching down to very near the bottom of thecan, which in this case is also the bottom of the nozzle. In thisdiaphragmplate, which in this case is the front plate of the can, a holeor gateway, d, is made, covered with a valve, f, fitted with avalve-stem, g, passing down through the bottom of the can, in which astuffingbox should be made, by which said valvestem can be tightlypacked. Thereseri'oir or can having been thus constructed is ready toreceive the coating or coloring material, which may be introducedthrough the orifice h, Fig. 2. The filling is done by turning the canback and throwing in the material until the necessary supply isobtained. In filling the can with the coating or coloring material theair is for the most part excluded, so that after the orifice h istightly closed, and the plate 0 taken off of the nozzle, the altitude ofthe fluid in the reservoir, if it happens to be higher than the top ofthe nozzle, will be maintained by the external pressure of theatmosphere upon the exposed fluid in the nozzle, ,in the same mannerprecisely as the mercury is maintained in the-long arm of the siphonbarometer, so

that none will run out. But the top of the I nozzle may in constructionbe so placed, if desirable, that it will always be as high as the top ofthe fluid in the reservoir. After the reservoir has been thus suppliedthe coating material is made to flow with a force a the nozzle,preventing further flow upon the paper, and causes the fluid to flowback into the can or reservoir until the level of the fluid in thenozzle or fountain is brought down to the lower edge of the valve f inthe gateway (1, when air passes through under the valve until theequilibrium is restored between the air within the reservoir and theouter atmosphere. Thus, the position of the valve f regulates the heightof the fluid in the nozzle or fountain when the machine is at rest, andprevents the unnecessary withdrawal of too much fluid from the nozzle orfountain when air is taken into the can or reservoir to supply the-placeof the fluid used, as such unnecessary withdrawal of fluid from thenozzle would necessitate its being resupplied," and the air that wouldoccupy its place forced out when pressure should be applied, and themachine set at work before any fluid would be applied to the paper. Thegateway beingnarrow and above the slit in the diaphragm, through whichthe fluid mainly flows the air in its passage into the can or reservoir,being but a small quantity each time, passes through it in a body, andnot in small bubbles, as it would if introduced along the whole lengthof the slit in the diaphragm, and rapidly rises to the surface of thefluid in the reservoir, and is in no danger of being again forced outinto the nozzle or fountain with the fluid, nor of breaking up the fluidwith foam. For this purpose the gate a nd Valve are fitted in the diaphragm-plate,

by which a passage is furnished for air, which is inaddition to the longnarrow opening under the diaphragm-plate, which latter opening is madenecessarily in that form to insure a solid, uniform, and simultaneousflow of the coating material along the entire length of the nozzle.

Having thus described a proper reservoir to contain the coating orcoloring material, I now proceed to bring the paper or other fabric inproper'relation to the reservoir or can to receive the coating. To dothis I feed the paper through a feeder, H, composed of tin, fitted witha double bottom, as shown by w. The paper is shoved through this feederbetween the bottoms until the end strikes the surface of a cylindricaldrum revolving upon its axis, as shown by B. After the paper has beenshoved through the feeder far enough to lap a short distance against thesurface of the drum-say, half an inch-the end vor edge of the sheet iscaught by a clutch, J, fitted in a slot cut in the shell of the drumparallel to its in gs, set in the drum near its ends, about which pivotsthe said clutch moves on a center from one side of the slot to theother, griping the paper when it is thrown forward, and releasing itwhen it is thrown back, the clutch being actuated by a cam fitted on theend of its pivot outside of the drum, and which cam is so arrangedas tocome in contact with stationary pins to set in a bracket, 22, bolted tothe frame of the machine, the cam striking the pins as the drumrevolves, throwing the clutch from side to side of the slot, gripingandcarrying the paper upon the drum, and releasing it as soon as thecoating is completed. The griping force of this clutch is due'to aspring, S, applied to one end of it, and attached to one end of thedrum, the spring yielding enough to allow the clutch to move from sideto side, and draw it down on either edge of the slot with equal force.As soon, then, as the end or edge of the sheet has been pressed farenough against the surface of the cylinder, it is caught by the clutchand carried up between the surface of the drum and the nozzle of thesupply-chamber A, the nozzle of the can being adjusted against thesurface of the cylinder, and parallel to its axis, the can itself beinghung in front of the cylinder on the frame V, by means of the arms L,which, it will be seen, are also adjustable, by which the can may benicely adjusted to its proper position. To keep the nozzle of the can upagainst the surface of the cylinder a pair of springs is applied, asshown by E, and which springs are drawn up by means of adjListing-screws, as shown. By this means the paper and other fabric arebrought in contact withthe coating or coloring material, which is spreadover its surface as the drum revolves.

I have now described the construction of the reservoir in which thecoating or coloring material is placed, and by which it is supplied tothe paper, and I have also described how the paper is brought in contactwith the covering material. It remains now to describe the manner ofregulating the flow of the fluid and its application to the paper, andalso the discharge of the paper from the drum. It is sometimes necessaryto put the adhesive material on thick; sometimes it must be put on thin;sometimes a large surface is to be covered; sometimes only a small one;sometimes a wide margin is desirable on the sheet; sometimes a narrowone only is necessary. It therefore becomes a matter of great importanceto regulate the volume, extent, and continuation of the flow or supplyof the coating material. The amount of material to be spread upon thepaper. is regulated by the size of the opening through which it flowsout of the nozzle, and by the pressure applied to the fluid, as comparedwith the pressure of the nozzle against thedrum, and by the the materialto .flow in the desired volume.-

The packing employed for this purpose con-. sists of paper, soft metal,or leather, cut, in the form shown by Fig. 6, from a sheet of thenecessary thickness, the width of theopening, and the amount of materialspread upon the paper, being, of course, regulated by the thickness ofthe material used for packing. By these packing-pieces the thickness ofthe ma terial spread upon the paper is not only regulated, but, by them,is also regulated the width of the surface to becovered, because thelength of the opening in the nozzle is governed by the distance betweenthe points z 2, as shown by Figs. 7 and 8. V

Fig. 8 shows how the packing should be made to lay to the coating orcoloring material on the paper in narrow or broad stripes, in case thatshould be found desirable.

It should here be observed that, in making the plate Q for the nozzle,the under front edge should be chamfered or beveled up, as shown in thedrawing, Fig. 9, so that the material will flow off of a flat surfaceand not oif of a sharp angle, the'flat surface yielding a uniform flow,

and the angle an irregular one, and for the further reason or purpose ofgiving a wider surface or space than the narrow slit, through which thefluid emerges from the nozzle, in which to apply the pressure of thefluid to the paper. 1 p

The shape of the space formed by the beveled edge of the lid, the top ofthe nozzle, and the surface of the drum, against which the nozzle;presses, is that of a triangular prism, itsape'x or highestpoint beingan acute angle. I propose to call this space the chamber of application,and its form issuch that the fluid s clearly and quickly withdrawn fromit when ;-he pressure that causes flow is removed, and the atmosphericpressure is allowed to act in the opposite direction, at the same timethat it serves the purposes above mentioned.

It has already been stated that the coating material will be laid on thepaper with a force equal tothat applied to the yielding cover a, andthat the flow of the material will stop when the pressure is removedfrom the cover.

Now, if the pressure of the nozzle against the drum be just equal to, orless than, the pressure of the fluid, and the drum be at rest, the airin the nozzle and chamber of application being expelled,bothwill befilled with fluid, but nonewill escape if the edge of the nozzle and thelid are even with each other; and if the drum be revolved nofluid'willbe applied,-except such as permeates the paper, the quantity beingregulated by pressure alone' upon the fluid, and,'perhaps, slightly bythe rapidity of movement of the paper. Second, if the pressure on thefluid be now increased to exceed the pressure of the nozzle upon thedrum, the latter being at rest, fluid will escape upward and downward,but if the drum at the same time be revolved tomove the paper upwardwith a velocity equal to the downward tendency of the escaping fluid,the fluid will all pass upward and be applied to the paper, and willhave the appearance as of a dead sur face, not polished, thequantitybeing regulated by pressure and the size of the orifice betweenthe lid and the top of the nozzle, and a like result may be produced byprojecting the lid forward beyond the nozzle by the set-screwshereinafter mentioned. Thirdly, the pressure of the fluid being lessthan, or equal to, the pressure of the nozzle against the drum, it, now,the lid be very slightly drawn backward by the adjusting-screws 0, Fig.1, back of it, the fluid will escape upward only, and if the drum be nowrevolved to move the paper npward the fluid will flow out and be appliedto it smoothly, evenly, and with a polished surface, the quantity beingregulated by pressure of fluid and size of orifice, and greater or lesswithdrawal of the lid, so that, by different adjustments, differentresults are produced.

Now, to obtainthe pressure upon the yielding cover of the can, a cam isbolted to the end of the cylinder, as shown by B. On this cam the end ofthe lever Tv is made to ride. This lever has its fulcrum on a shaftpivoted in the brackets F, and to this shaft is attached an arm, N,fitted with a bearing-block, I, in the manner substantially as shown.The end of the lever T is fitted with a roller, 02, and when the machineis not at work this end of the lever hangs down against the side of thecam, but when the cylinder is put in motion the roller in the end of thelever strikes the inclined plane Q fitted on the side of the cam andraises the end of the lever up on the top of the cam,where it is kept bythe actionof a spring, W, of Fig. 3, until it strikes a wedge-shapedcam, P, fastened on the top of cam R, by which the end of the lever isthrown off of the latter cam, and the pressure on the yielding cover ofthe cam is discontinued. Now, the

relative action of this cam and lever to force the coating material outof the can and the clutch to gripe the paper is such that, as soon asthe clutch has taken hold of the paper, the lever is thrown on the cam,and the coating material is forced out of the can on the paper, and thepressure continues until the sheet is covered, or as much of it as maybe desired.

The fluid will flow as long as the cam presses up the end of the lever,and that will continue from the time it is thrown on the cam by theinclined plane Q until it is thrown off by the wedge-shaped cam, P, bothof which are adjustable, and may be shoved up near each other, asindicated by the holes in the side of the cam It, in which case thelever will act on the cam a shorter time, and the duration of the flowwill be correspondingly shorter. It may be that the lever T will notpress with suflicient force on the can a to expel the coating materialwith. suflicient force, or 1011 g enough to coat the sheet over itsentire length, in which case it is necessary to drop the pressure-blockI, which may be done by means of an adjustable screw, by which it issecured to the end of the lever 5 or the same object may be accomplishedby raising the cam higher above the surface of the drum through theagency of the adjusting-screws shown by Y. The lever T is pivoted uponthe shaft to. move sidewise only, so that the roller N at its end may bethrown aside and held by a catch, so as not to engage with the inclinedplane Q, or the cam R, in which case, though the cylinder be revolved,no pressure will be applied to the fluid, and none will flow out.

In describing this machine, I have referred to but one cam, R, and oneclutch, J 5 but really there are two cams and two clutches, as shown bythe drawing. The one, however, is a mere duplicate of the other, for thepurpose of coating two sheets of paper at every revolution of thecylinder instead of one. 1

After the paper hasbeen coated, as above described, it is dischargedfrom the machine by means of fingers. The small ends of these fingersare made to ride against the back surface of the cylinder, and passthrough the notches k made in the clutch, when it comes to the slot outin the cylinder. Now, to raise up. the edge of the paper after theclutch has released it, there is a series of small springs set inside ofthe drum under the clutch, by which the edge of the paper, as soon as"the clutch falls back, is pressed up so as to allow the fingers to passunder it and receive it on the finger-table shown in the drawing.

In place of the cylinder in this machine, a revolving belt or movingtable. may be used; or the can or applier may be moved over a plainsurface while the paper or other sub stance is at rest upon it.

The machine, as described, is particularly applicable to gumming,pasting, sizing, or laying grounds, in colors or otherwise, on paper orother flexible 'material in sheets, leaving a margin on all its edges.To make application to paper or other material in rows or long strips,the cam B may be converted into a spiral on the end of the drum, to givegreater length of time during which pressure will be applied to thefluid, or any other means adopted to produce a continued and equalpressure of air upon the fluid in the reservoir, such as air-pumps, thepressure of a column of liquid, or the like; and the apparatus for thispurpose is not necessarily a part of the reservoir in which thesubstance to be applied is contained, but needs only to be connectedtherewith by tubes or other air-tight connections.

Having now described my invention, and the means of carrying the sameinto practice, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patcut, isY 1. The reservoir A, provided with an airchamber, fitted with acompressor, and combined with the cylinder B, as described, by which thepasting or coloringmaterial is spread upon the paper, substantially asset forth.

2. The cylinder B, combined with an airtight can or reservoir, A, fittedwith an adjustable nozzle, substantially as described, to spread thecoating or coloring material upon the paper in broad or narrow strips,or lay it on thick or thin, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination with the can or reservoir, the cylinder B, fitted withcams and levers, as described, to automatically operate the compressorand force the fluid upon the paper or fabric moving with the cylinder,as set forth.

4. The nozzle 1), constructed substantially as described, and fittedwith the diaphragm- )late 0 valve ackin )ieces shown in Fi s. 1 7 7 O 236, 7, and 8, and adjustable lid 0, with its front edge chamfered to formthe chamber of application by which the application and flow of thematerial is regulated.

5. The reservoir A, provided with an airchamber fitted with ancxhauster, and combined with or connected to the supply-nozzle, by whichthe atmosphere is made to force back the fluid in the reservoir, in themanner substantially as described.

- ALBON HAN.

lVitnesscs:

AMos BROADNAX, FRANK N. SHEPARD.

